Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born in Oujda to Algerian parents and joined the National Liberation Army (ALN) at age nineteen during Algeria's War of Independence against France. Following independence in 1962, he became Minister of Youth and Tourism and then Minister of Foreign Affairs at just twenty-six, serving for sixteen years and establishing Algeria as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and third-world anti-colonial diplomacy.

Elected president in 1999 following the devastating "Black Decade" of Islamist civil conflict that claimed 200,000 lives, Bouteflika instituted the Civil Concord and Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, bringing an end to the insurgency. Re-elected three times, he presided over an oil-fueled infrastructure boom. Following a debilitating stroke in 2013, his attempt to seek a fifth term sparked the historic nationwide 2019 Hirak peaceful protest movement, leading to his resignation.